LITTLE ROCK An outspoken appeals court judge who lost a re-election bid after battling with an ethics panel over his right to speak out on political issues said Tuesday he's opposed to a measure banning same-sex and unmarried couples from becoming foster and adoptive parents.
Appeals Court Judge Wendell Griffen was one of 23 religious leaders who released a statement opposing the proposed initiated act that will appear on next month's ballot. Griffen is also a Baptist preacher.
"We are called by our faith teachings to protect children. Act 1 puts our children at risk," the statement read.
Griffen said he signed on to the statement which doesn't identify him as an appeals court judge because of his involvement with an interfaith group of religious leaders.
"I believe that the proposed initiated Act 1 is bad public policy for children, for families and hamstrings the very important work of judges in trying to meet the needs of children in some of our most challenging family situations," Griffen said Tuesday.
Others who signed on to the letter include Rev. Larry Benfield, Episcopal bishop of Arkansas, and Rabbi Eugene Levy of Little Rock. The statement was also signed by Rev. Betsy Singleton, a Methodist minister and the wife of U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark.
The Arkansas Family Council has been promoting the proposed act as a way to prohibit gay couples from becoming foster or adoptive parents even though it would affect heterosexual and homosexual couples alike. John Thomas, the council's vice president, said the group has more than 1,000 churches that have promoted the measure but would not release a list of those churches.
"If you line up the churches side by side, you'll see an overwhelming majority that support act one," Thomas said.
Griffen lost a bid for another term on the court in May when he was defeated by Rita Gruber in a non-partisan race. The loss came after Griffen's high-profile battles with the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission over the rights of judges to speak out.
Griffen had tangled with the commission over his public remarks since 2002. The case dropped last year was brought over remarks he made in 2005 and 2006. Issues Griffen spoke out on included the Bush administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, the minimum wage, the war in Iraq, and critics of immigrants and gays and lesbians.
Shortly after the commission hired a new director, David Stewart, the relationship between the judge and the commission began to warm up. Two days before the panel dropped its charges against Griffen, Stewart said he believed the case had helped to clarify judges' free-speech rights.
Griffen, whose term ends Dec. 31, has applied to become dean of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law.
Stewart declined to comment on Griffen's statement about the ballot measure, but suggested the outgoing judge's comments on the measure is the type of free speech by judges that Griffen's cases addressed.
"There's no distinction made whether or not it concerns an initiated act or not," Stewart said. "It would seem to encompass that kind of political debate in a hypothetical sense."
